‘Sons of Bengal’ and the Absent Daughters: Gender, Performativity and Nationalism in Bengali Juvenile Literature

Stella Chitralekha Biswas

doi:10.5565/rev/indialogs.168

Abstract

This article looks at the asymmetrical bifurcation of gender roles and performativity that is reflected palpably within Bengali juvenile literature of the twentieth century. These writings strove to venerate a cult of hypermasculinity through the portrayal of brave, assertive Bengali heroes who engaged in various escapades in distant lands or in the solving of mysteries and crimes, either alone or accompanied by male confidantes who remain completely devoted to them. This dominant cultural trope was consciously employed as a challenge to the imperial, racist stereotypes of the effeminate Bengali man who was imagined to be inferior to the virile, robust and intellectually superior Englishman. However, the role of women within such diegetic portrayals is liminal or conspicuously absent; female readers are conditioned to “wallow in the reflected glory of their heroes” (Mukherjee para. 13). This paper also looks into the politics of sexuality and nationalism involved within the celebration of male homosocial bonding over heteronormative relationships, thereby leading to the almost complete effacement of female agency.

Highlights

The idea of gendering in children’s literature has managed to stimulate considerable interest over the past few decades and juvenile literature in Bengal is no exception in this regard
This paper looks into the politics of sexuality and nationalism involved within the celebration of male homosocial bonding over heteronormative relationships, thereby leading to the almost complete effacement of female agency
Feluda smokes Charminar cigarettes, has a proclivity towards the finer aspects of life, socializes with people extensively, has immense knowledge about places and cultures, dons disguises, often uses his sidekicks as baits in luring the criminals and keeps night vigils upon the suspects at times ‒ being the primary agent in the entire investigation process. “...[T]hrough the articulation of buddhibal in contrast with bahubal1 that negotiates with the hegemonic national-masculine” (Chattopadhyay, 2011: 265), he fits perfectly into the archetype of the cosmopolitan male wanderer that is engendered upon the crucial conceptualization of the aspirations of late twentieth century genteel, Bengali masculine subjectivity

Summary

Introduction

The idea of gendering in children’s literature has managed to stimulate considerable interest over the past few decades and juvenile literature in Bengal is no exception in this regard. The history of the latter goes back to its roots in the nineteenth century and the socio-cultural developments that spurred the region in the drive towards colonial modernity. Gendered discourses started infiltrating the realm of popular juvenile literature since the early traces of its advent and can be understood as deliberately influencing the formative consciousness of the young readers with a definite nationalist agenda as the era progressed. While writings targeting a male readership championed the ideal of Bengali masculinity, it came to be understood that women had to remain content with derivative roles within the context of intellectual or physical quests that were celebrated in such diegetic spaces

Colonial Moorings of Bengali Juvenile Literature

The Rise of the Assertive Bengali Hero

Absence of Adventurous Females

Conclusion

WORKS CITED

Print and Web Sources